I think this is all very ironic because both Uighur and Han have a common enemy in the Chinese Communist Party. Rather than fighting with one another, they should harmoniously work to fight the CCP's repression or rights and freedoms.

I know it is natural to be defensive when people say critical things about your country. But, I think those that are making critical comments about China are not criticizing the people or culture of China. They are really taking aim at the unelected government of China.

I think it is the hope of most commenters that China one day is a free and prosperous place. I for one am hoping for the best with the next generation.

To J.Ademovic - why has it not pointed out that the initial attack in the factory was in response to an endless robbery and raping of innocent Chinese women.......

To BluesChicago - freedom of speech ....freedom of speech ...freedom of speech ......every single time China has something like that ...it is no one's fault but the government that is evil, no human rights, people were abused, oppressing human rights, communism…?..we see vast media coverage for the riots perspective in both Tibetan and Xinjiang, however, we see no one reported sentences or words from the Han’s perspective …why does Economist not post the pictures of dead innocent people , pictures of attackings and killing. So killing innocent people is fine because they want the attention from the world and we should listen to their claims ...give them rights to do so.

It is not okay to bomb the world trade center and the London subway because your life is so valuable but it is okay to slaughter Chinese…?if you think this is your freedom speech standard and human rights standard, then OKAY, we rather enjoying the “dictatorship” we are having now because China has been transformed from the most poorest country in the world in the earlier 20th century to now becoming the 2nd biggest economy under communist rule. We would rather choose this dictatorship now because we not only getting 1.2 billion people out of poverty but also building world longest highways, world longest roads, world most fancy trains, world most vibrate business centers, world biggest technology parks, world biggest deep-water harbors and world most exciting life that is attracting all the friends from the world to China to relax, tour or fulfill their dreams. We like MacDonald’s, KFC, Pizzahut, American movies, French wines, Italian soccer, German trains, Japanese cars, India yoga and so on …..This is the life that we have achieved in five decades and we are very pleased under communist rule …?.

Although, we do believe that the system is not perfect, we do see divide in the social income, but so does America, Europe, Japan and anywhere else in the world. Obama said today that the US is not perfect neither but rather he and American people will improve themselves through constructive critiques and review mistakes to make it better…SO DOES CHINESE. Instead of accusing everything is wrong and do what you told us to do….The answer is NO! We will do our own way, under the name of communism because name is just a name but people’s standard of living is all we care about!

gold phoenix, as far as I know neither US nor UK forbids under-18 male to enter a mosque. No excuse to do so in China.

Guy Shaw, there simply is no excuse for mob violence. We can try to understand or speculate the cause, and appreciate the frustrations of the Uighurs, but there ain't absolutely no excuse for killing hundreds of Han-civilians because fellow Han-workers in a far away province wrongly put matters into their own hands resulting in killing two suspected Uighur rapists.

The Economist: "Screaming in anger about the weekend unrest, thousands of Han Chinese marched through the centre of Urumqi on Tuesday afternoon, wielding a variety of makeshift and menacing weapons, including clubs, meat cleavers, long knives, axes and bricks."

Those Hans sure look scary.

Funny. When it was the Uighurs that rioted there was no such graphic description. You wondered how they managed to kill 150 of Hans with their bare hands.

The majority of the population in Urumqi in 1949 was Uighur. Dilution was caused by mass migration of Hans over the past 20 to 30 years. Restriction on religion, difficulties of being employment and having less say in their own place were the hidden problems between Uighers and Hans.

What we saw from the news were the official broadcast from the PRC government and all interviewees' comments were one-sided. I don't think any interview done by the foreign journalists would be able to broadcast. Same situation in Tibet last year.

I find the waters on this issue very muddy indeed. It's very difficult to tell who were the real instigators of the violence. Priemiermao's comment below is incorrect though, when he says that the Han population stayed home. The article expressly states that the Han Chinese took to the streets in retaliation and had to be blocked from Uigher neighborhoods.

I lived in China for a year (partly in Shanghai and partly in Tianjin) and to be honest, I found that most Chinese people were pretty racist toward Uighers. They would tell me not to go to this or that neighborhood because that was where the Uighers lived and they would rob or attack me. I had Chinese friends who specifically called the muslims in Xinjiang nothing but a bunch of criminals. However as soon as you ask a Chinese person about diversity they are quick to point out that "China is home to 56 ethnic minorities." Meanwhile these minorities are basically forced to exploit their own culture, wearing the overdone costumes and headdresses to amuse the Han Chinese tourists.

When the ethnic minorities in China are selling their own culture to tourists, the Chinese government is trying to dilute those minorities by encouraging the migration of Han Chinese into areas like Xinjiang and Tibet. Why? It's actually a pretty brilliant maneuver by the CCP, that's been in effect for years. It's because, by increasing the Han population, they increase the allegiance and therefore stability of those areas. It's politically genius, but from my perspective abhorrent to railroad over local culture like that, and a little scary. What border area will the next dispute be over?

I think that there are a lot of beautiful things about China. I loved the year I spent there. But the CCP's purposeful suffocation of minority culture is terrible. I want to see how this situation in Urumqi plays out, and how the CCP responds.

The vast majority of Han population in Urumqi stay home after the rioting on Sunday, though they do remain very scared and traumatized. Calls for tit-for-tat vengeance are from a minority of Hans who are simply fed up with the violence Uighers lashed out on them, which, it must be pointed out, has dotted the last two decades. Though their anger is understandable, given the brutality and cruelty of the crime on Sunday and the slow and indecisive response from the government(the CCP cadres in Xinjiang and Tibet typically have to call their bosses in Beijing at the onset of massive riots before they can draw a line and take actions),they are absolutely wrong to call for reprisal, for this will serve no one's interest and will only lead to more blood being shed in vain.